A two-year conservation project by the National Trust has uncovered significant compositional changes in Jacopo Tintoretto's painting *The Wise and Foolish Virgins* (around 1546), which returns to public display at Upton House in Warwickshire, UK on 28 April. X-ray imaging revealed a hidden stone balcony beneath the final architectural setting, matching a balcony in a related version at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Infrared scanning and paint analysis also showed that Tintoretto removed criss-cross elements and a balcony section, replacing them with a servant laying a table, while previous restorers had misinterpreted these pentimenti as part of the intended composition.
The discovery matters because it clarifies the relationship between the Upton House painting and the Boijmans version, previously attributed to Tintoretto with a later date of 1547–50. The findings suggest both works may have originated in parallel in Tintoretto's workshop, prompting a reappraisal of their dating and authorship. The conservation also demonstrates how technical analysis can recover an artist's original intentions, correcting centuries of misinterpretation and revealing a hidden layer of history in a major Renaissance work.